Time Management – Covey’s 4 Quadrants

Well, every day there is a limited number of hours… 24 to be exact. Since I am quite busy in the last days- from working, volunteering and much more, I have thought of writing about time management. In this short post, I will explain the four-quadrant matrix for importance and urgency, which is the basis for managing your time right. So, what are Covey’s 4 quadrants?
Covey’s quadrants organize our life activities into 4 different quadrants, that differ in importance and urgency. The first one represent the things that are both important and urgent for us to do (you need to do them now). The second represent the things that are important, but not urgent (you can decide when to do them). The third represent the things that are not important, but urgent (you should delegate them and not do them yourself). The last quadrant represents the things that are neither important or urgent (you should dump them!).

Covey’s 4 quadrants give us a valuable lesson- we should stay focus at our important tasks. Even though it’s quiet tempting to handle our urgent tasks all the time- that won’t leave us much time to do the really important things… We should try and stay focus at quadrants 1 and 2.

For conclusion, I Think that Randy Pausch’s (The late and very inspiring American professor) time management lecture is truly excellent (It’s a bit long, but very recommended). I have watched this lecture a few times and I encourage you to watch it. Enjoy…